‘Not really,’ said Miss Bulstrode. ‘In life one has to make one’s own mistakes.’

‘That’s all right in life,’ said Eileen Rich. ‘In life you can pick yourself up and start again.’ Her hands, hanging at her sides, clenched themselves into fists. Her expression was grim. Then suddenly it relaxed into humour. ‘But if a school’s gone to pieces, you can’t very well pick that up and start again, can you?’

‘If you ran a school like Meadowbank,’ said Miss Bulstrode, ‘would you make changes—experiment?’

Eileen Rich looked embarrassed. ‘That’s—that’s an awfully hard thing to say,’ she said.

‘You mean you would,’ said Miss Bulstrode. ‘Don’t mind speaking your mind, child.’

‘One would always want, I suppose, to use one’s own ideas,’ said Eileen Rich. ‘I don’t say they’d work. They mightn’t.’

‘But it would be worth taking a risk?’

‘It’s always worth taking a risk, isn’t it?’ said Eileen Rich. ‘I mean if you feel strongly enough about anything.’

‘You don’t object to leading a dangerous life. I see…’ said Miss Bulstrode.

‘I think I’ve always led a dangerous life.’ A shadow passed over the girl’s face. ‘I must go. They’ll be waiting.’ She hurried off.

Miss Bulstrode stood looking after her. She was still standing there lost in thought when Miss Chadwick came hurrying to find her.

‘Oh! there you are. We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Professor Anderson has just rung up. He wants to know if he can take Meroe this next weekend. He knows it’s against the rules so soon but he’s going off quite suddenly to—somewhere that sounds like Azure Basin.’

‘Azerbaijan,’ said Miss Bulstrode automatically, her mind still on her own thoughts.

‘Not enough experience,’ she murmured to herself. ‘That’s the risk. What did you say, Chaddy?’

Miss Chadwick repeated the message.

‘I told Miss Shapland to say that we’d ring him back, and sent her to find you.’

‘Say it will be quite all right,’ said Miss Bulstrode. ‘I recognize that this is an exceptional occasion.’

Miss Chadwick looked at her keenly.

‘You’re worrying, Honoria.’

‘Yes, I am. I don’t really know my own mind. That’s unusual for me—and it upsets me…I know what I’d like to do—but I feel that to hand over to someone without the necessary experience wouldn’t be fair to the school.’

‘I wish you’d give up this idea of retirement. You belong here. Meadowbank needs you.’

‘Meadowbank means a lot to you, Chaddy, doesn’t it?’

‘There’s no school like it anywhere in England,’ said Miss Chadwick. ‘We can be proud of ourselves, you and I, for having started it.’

Miss Bulstrode put an affectionate arm round her shoulders. ‘We can indeed, Chaddy. As for you, you’re the comfort of my life. There’s nothing about Meadowbank you don’t know. You care for it as much as I do. And that’s saying a lot, my dear.’

Miss Chadwick flushed with pleasure. It was so seldom that Honoria Bulstrode broke through her reserve.

II

‘I simply can’t play with the beastly thing. It’s no good.’